Lit & Art > Baltimore Orioles!

It’s true! Since October 2007, the Lit and Art series at the Watermark Gallery has provided a unique opportunity to sample a variety of artistic sensibilities. When was the last time the Orioles finished above .500? That’s right, 1997.

The next Lit and Art event takes place on Sunday, June 27 at 2 p.m. You don’t have to wait for football season to see what a winning Baltimore team looks like!

The bases are loaded with a lineup of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, memoir, music, art, and refreshments. Returning writers include J. Christoph Amberger, Lauren Eisenberg, and Cliff Lynn. B. Morrison will make her Lit and Art debut.

Manzar Rassouli-Taylorr will present some of her artwork.

Red Tractor Factory, the Lit and Art house band, and LaRana Bryant will provide live music.

Like previous events in this series, it is free and open to the public. Complimentary wine and refreshments will be served, and audience members will have a chance to share their own work during the open mic session.

The Watermark Gallery is located in the Bank of America Center Skywalk Level, right across from the Inner Harbor, at 100 S. Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland. The phone number is (410) 547-0452.

Learn more about the Watermark at the online gallery: www.manzar.net

CityLit Gets Nationally Endowed

Big news for lit in the city: The CityLit Project recently received a grant for $10,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts, marking the first time that the six-year-old organization has been awarded a federal grant.

CityLit was among sixty-four recipients -- and just one of two Maryland-based nonprofits -- to land a grant under the "Literature" category of NEA's Access to Artistic Excellence initiative.

This honor places CityLit in the company of older, more established literary centers such as The Loft in Minneapolis, Just Buffalo in Buffalo, The Writer's Center in Bethesda, Grub Street in Boston, and the Richard Hugo House in Seattle.

The grant will help CityLit continue its mission to nurture the culture of literature in the city of Baltimore. That means another CityLit Festival, CityLit Tent at the Baltimore Book Festival, workshops, programs, contests, and more.

To hear more about this and other CityLit news, visit http://www.citylitproject.org/ where you can also subscribe to the newsletter, CityLit Muse.

Flightless Goose Lands at LakeFest

Flightless Goose has found a new lake! Gilbert will be featured at the Columbia Festival of the Arts’ BookFest at LakeFest.

LakeFest is a weekend full of free, fun events for the entire family. With books, art exhibits, music, kids’ entertainment and crafts, demonstrations and a variety of activities for all ages, it’s a jam-packed weekend guaranteed to be fun for everyone!

BookFest at Lakefest puts a literary spin on the festivities.

From 1 to 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 12, we’re offering a free Kid’s Lit Hour. I’ll partner with Laura Shovan, the Maryland State Arts Council Artist-in-Education for Poetry and winner of this year’s Harriss Poetry Prize. After a reading of Flightless Goose, Laura will conduct a family poetry craft with the kids.

I’ll be signing copies of Flightless Goose for kids and their families — so come for the poetry and stay for the books!

Learn more about Laura Shovan at her website.

www.laurashovan.com

Find out more about Columbia Festival of the Arts’ BookFest at LakeFest at the official website.

www.columbiafestival.com/lakeFest.aspx

Burnout May Be Just What Your Writing Needs

John Sandford was a Pulitzer-prize winning reporter before becoming a bestselling novelist. He wrote as a police reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer. But newspaper writing was burning him out.

“I wrote my first novel after being burnt out from the newspaper business. I knew I was burnt out when I started trying to duck out of big assignments. Big news events became boring. I had to get out, so I turned to fiction.”

It wasn’t an easy start. “I wrote a couple books that didn’t sell.” But then he hit it big with the creation of his recurring character, Lucas Davenport. “He’s a cross between a movie star and a cop.” A winning combination.

So if you’ve been feeling a little bit of burnout, perhaps that’s just what you need to jumpstart your writing.

To learn more about John Sanford’s books, visit his website.

www.johnsandford.org